Lost Boys
by something like human
Summary: 2nd fic in Lost Boys and Golden Girls arc. Sequel arc to Storms. AU Duo finds WuFei and Mariemaia which turn his boring, lonely life upside down.


Title: Lost Boys

Arc: Lost Boys and Golden Girls

Rating: PG13

Author: Something Like Human

Notes: This is I guess you could call it, a continuation of the Storm arc. There may be one more fic in the Storm Arc but this plot bunny has taken hold and won't let go. I have always been fascinated with the relationship (not that you sickos) between Wufei and Mariemaia. There had to be some bond there for him to face off against his former comrades for her honor. Also, I think you may be able to read this fic and the ones that will come after it without necessarily reading Storms. It might help in seeing how Wufei thinks in this since he is slightly OOC to the series. 

Timeline: This arc takes place after the first war and (obviously) shortly before the Eve's War. Round-abouts the fall of AC196. This one picks up directly after "Running Away, Running for Home" takes place. 

Warnings: AU (I really mess with the story from here on out), still hinting at shounen ai (like Mo's bricks…er… hints), drama, adult themes, minimal swearing.

Disclaimers: I don't own GW nor do I own the song "Lost Boys and Golden Girls" by Meatloaf. 

Beta: The Almighty Mo (a.k.a. Renegade Phoenix)

I was just walking down to the dumpster beside my apartment with a full trash bag. I mean, who would have thought that anything interesting would happen while doing that? When I got down all the flights of stairs, it takes me almost ten minutes and I'm in excellent shape, and out the door with no problem. It was when I got to the alley that I about had a heart attack. I could see two people there…kids really. I say that like I was so much older. I'm a kid who doesn't even know how old I am. Oh well, not like I ever really cared about my age anyways. 

But anyways, I saw two kids there and I dropped the garbage bag to reach for my gun. The war may be over but that doesn't mean that it's safe to live on L2. This neighborhood wasn't as bad as some of the places that I've lived; in fact it was one of the few 'good' neighborhoods on the colony. I realized that I had left my gun up in my apartment out of sheer stupidity on my part. I hoped that they weren't carrying knives or anything and decided to see what was going on.

"What are you doing there?"

The larger kid about jumped out of his skin at my question. He turned to look at me on unsteady legs. He wobbled for a second and I realized that the poor kid was about to fall. Acting on instinct, I jumped forward and caught him. That's all I needed was some poor street orphan to crack his head open on the pavement and someone to witness it (even though I was sure no one was watching). 

The eyes that focused on me shocked the hell outta me. I had never seen so much emotion in them; pleading for help, relief, exhaustion, surprise, everything all at once and perhaps more.

"WuFei?"

I couldn't believe it was him but more alarming was the state that he was in. I could tell by my arms around him from catching him that he felt alarmingly frail and light. Even in the dimness of the alleyway, I could see that he was definitely worse for the wear. 

"Oh my god! Shit, man, I gotta get you upstairs!"

He then whispered my name before he passed out. He sounded very relieved. I started to lift him into my arms when the other child decided to make his or her presence known. The little thing kicked me in the shin and scowled up at me.

"Put him down now! You hurt him!"

The voice was unmistakably feminine even though the little girl had very shortly cropped flame-red hair. She was wearing an overly large jacket that I assumed had started out as WuFei's and her clothes were only slightly less tattered than his. Even though she was dirty, cold, and most likely starving, there was a fierce determination in her eyes.

I looked down at her and as gently as I could, told her, "He's very weak and passed out. I would never hurt WuFei. We are friends."

"Do you live upstairs?" She asked me looking quite skeptical. I have got to give her credit; she's a fairly bright kid if she wanted proof before trusting me with WuFei. 

"Yep," I replied as cheerily as I could. 

"What apartment number then?"

A very bright girl indeed. "Apartment 536."

"Okay! That's the one we tried to ring a few minutes ago. You weren't up there."

I was probably on my way down. So it wasn't just a coincidence that I found my fellow pilot. He had come looking for me. From what I could gather from the situation was that something major had happened to him since the war and seeing as he had dropped off the face of the Earthsphere, it probably wasn't all good. 

"Well, what are you waiting for, little one," I prompted her. "We need to help WuFei and standing here isn't going to do any good."

I led her in while I carried my friend. Wryly, I thought that it was a good thing he lost weight or I might not have been able to carry him up the stairs. As it was, the little girl had to struggle to keep going. I could see in the soft light of the stairwell, that she was nearing exhaustion herself. I handed her my key to open my door and told her to lock it for me when I carried WuFei through. I laid him down on my battered couch while I turned on more lights to get a better look at him. He was more ragged than I had ever seen him suggesting that he was on the run for quite some time. There were fading bruises all over and a healing wound on his upper left arm. It looked almost healed and nothing to worry about. I started to search more thoroughly for injuries, like the many times we had done it for each other during the war, and I noticed that when I touched his skin, he was burning up. He probably had an infection and judging from the wound on the arm, that wasn't the cause of it. 

"He also got bit by a guard dog," the girl explained quietly. "He thought I didn't notice him still limping but I think it's not getting better. It hurts him a lot even though he tries to hide it."

I blinked at her and then turned my attention to his lower extremities. He had a pair of ill-fitting, dark jeans on that I needed to get off to take a look at his wounds. Knowing him, he would not want a little girl watching while I stripped him to examine him so I turned to the girl. 

"Are you hurt?"

"No," she said shaking her filthy head. "He protected me like a knight."

"He's like that," I agreed slightly amused by her analogy. "Want to take a shower? I'll get you a towel and one of my tee shirts to wear until I can get your clothes cleaned."

She looked hesitant. "I don't want to leave him…"

"He'll be okay. I need to get him cleaned up and I'm sure he would be thoroughly embarrassed by being seen undressed by a lady such as yourself," I explained. She was a smart girl, she'd understand.

"Ummm… Okay."

I showed her where the bathroom was and got some stuff out for her to use. I also grabbed some of my clothes to put WuFei in and a few clean wash clothes and a towel so I could clean him up. I then grabbed the first aid kit out of the bathroom and left the girl to cleaning herself. I hoped she knew how to do that, she looked a little young but I'm not good with judging what little kids should and shouldn't do. I stopped in the kitchen and got a bowl of warm water and took my supplies to the living room.

I quickly stripped the other boy and shook my head at how thin he was. WuFei was never very big to start with but it looked as if he hadn't eaten a decent meal in weeks. I removed the jeans that were all but falling off of his too-slender hips and gasp. The bite on his right thigh was indeed infected. I cleaned it as best as I could, applied prescription strength anti-bacterial ointment on it (left over from the first aid kits we all carried during the war) and bandaged him. I then set in to cleaning the rest of his body up. I did the best I could with the resources I had on hand and got him dressed by the time the little girl exited the bathroom. 

I covered WuFei up with a blanket. I would need to try to wake him soon to get some antibiotics into him but I needed to talk to the girl first. I didn't even know who she was or how she ended up being protected by the other pilot.

"There you are! There was a little girl under all that grime!" I exclaimed. She giggled a little and run over to the couch. She examined my cleaning job of her 'knight' and nodded. 

"Is he okay?" She asked cautiously. 

"He will be," I assured her. "Now, let's get you taken care of."

I stood and extended my hand to hers. She took it and I led her to the kitchen. I set her at the table and turned to the cabinets. "Peanut butter and jelly okay?"

She nodded and her damp hair dripped onto her nose. She wiped it off nonchalantly and continued to watch me. I quickly made her a sandwich and poured her a glass of milk. I don't have too many fancy foods at my place but I have the necessities. Actually, most of what was in the apartment, I considered luxuries. I had never had my own place before. 

After the war, I came back here and started working at the junk yard with Hilde again like I did during the war. Only this time, instead of using it as a cover, I was actually doing it for real and getting a real pay check. I had never actually worked for a pay check before so it was very exciting for me to have my own money that I had not lifted from someone's pocket. It wasn't an exciting job but was any jobs supposed to be? Their sole purpose was supposed to provide some sort of service or product to someone else and in return, you get paid. It was boring but then again, boring meant that we were finally at peace.

I handed her the sandwich and sat down with her at the table. I sipped my glass of milk and the thought crossed my mind that I would need to run to the store if I wanted to feed two additional people. I didn't even know the little girl's name and I was already figuring out what I would be feeding her for the next few days. I shook my head at myself. First things first.

"I'm Duo Maxwell."

The girl looked up at me and wiped her mouth on her napkin. "I am Mariemaia. Pleased to meet you Mr. Maxwell."

"The pleasure is mine," I chimed keeping up with her pleasantries. "But don't call me Mister….it makes me sound like someone's father."

"Okay…Duo," she replied looking at me shyly. "Thank you for the shower and sandwich."

"No problemo, Miss May," I smiled at her as she giggled at my nickname for her. Poor thing had a mouthful of a name. She was very much the proper little lady while she ate. She definitely was not some kid picked up off the street. Chang must have 'rescued' her from somewhere. Now, the question was where did she come from?

Before I could question her more, I heard WuFei stirring in the other room. I rushed in there with Mariemaia on my heels. He was just sitting up on the couch and looking utterly confused as to where he was.

"You're okay," the little girl squealed and latched onto her traveling companion's neck. To my surprise, WuFei hugged her back and the looked her up and down and then looked around the room again. I chuckled to myself. It is not often that one gets to see the great warrior Chang WuFei look confused.

"Hiya Fei! Glad you could join us in the land of the living!" 

He looked at me and shook his head. I could tell that he was relieved to see me but I was still curious as to what had happened to bring him to collapse at my door step. He lifted a hand from where it was around the little girl and tucked a loose strand of hair behind his ear. I hadn't even attempted to wash his hair while he was unconscious on the couch. We will have to deal with it later.

"I need your help, Maxwell…Duo," he said looking into my eyes. There had been a lot between us during the war: Friendship, companionship, camaraderie, a good argument or hundred, and an ever expanding grey area that left us both confused. I could tell by his stumbling over my name that he was still very confused about it. Hopefully, we would have time to sort it out later.

"You know that I'd do anything to help," I replied. 

"Thank you, Duo," he said a little bit more sure of himself this time. He looked like he was about to say something else and then chuckled. I followed his gaze down to the little red head resting on his shoulder. Mariemaia had fallen asleep in his arms. I bent down to them and lifted the girl into my arms. I started to take her into my bedroom when I heard the couch springs squeak. 

"Sit, Fei," I instructed. "I'm just going to lay her down and then we're going to talk."

I laid the tiny girl on my bed and tucked her in. I felt the urge to kiss her good night like Sister Helen always did to me but stopped myself. I instead smoothed my fingers across her youthful cheek. I left the bedside lamp turned on so she wouldn't freak out waking up in a strange, dark room. On my way out of the room, I picked up something I had kept with me since before the war was over.

Walking out to the living room, I found my friend still seated on the couch staring off into space. I plopped Thunder down on his lap unceremoniously. He startled for a second and then looked down at the hideously ugly, greenish-brown teddy bear. He shook his head and chuckled briefly. 

"I can't believe you still have this unsightly thing," he said even while hugging it to his chest. I almost didn't hear him whisper 'thank you'. 

"I was lonely. Thunder kept me company," I replied not exactly trying to come out and say that I had missed him. I slipped into speaking Chinese for him as hard as it was for me. I know my accent was horrible and was probably worse now after not speaking it for a while but I wanted to get his attention and hopefully have him talk to me like we used to during the war. I wanted to talk like the best friends (or perhaps more) that we had been back then. "I've been worried about you…"

"I…ah, I am sorry." He looked up at me and I could see the weariness in his eyes. 

"What happened?"

He told it all. How Dekim Barton approached him with the girl, the army of war orphans, his discovery of how they mistreated Mariemaia, and inevitably how they escaped. It seems that they had been on the run for weeks. By the time he was done talking, I was kneeling on the floor in front of the couch with my hands on his shoulders trying to comfort him. 

"I'm sorry, Duo," he whispered hoarsely. "I didn't mean to drop this on you. It is my responsibility to protect her."

I couldn't stand it any longer. I leaned up and hugged him tightly. As soon as I had him in my arms, he clung to me. I murmured over and over again that it was alright, that I would help. The end of the war had left him so confused and then being alone through all of that had to have almost been overwhelming. His inner strength has always amazed me but this time I was in awe. He did it all for what he believed was right – protecting that little girl from abuse, and risk everything to do it. Even if I had not already seen and been drawn to the child myself, I would have helped him do anything just so he wasn't alone any more. 

"I will help, WuFei. You have my word," I said solemnly when he had relaxed some. "First, you two need to stay here for a while to rest and heal. You are welcome to stay here and I will help Mariemaia, too."

"But, we're intruding on your life here…" He started to argue. 

"You can't possibly expect me to turn my back on a child that has been hurt – even if it was more emotionally than physically. And I refuse to turn my back on you, WuFei. I should not have let you walk away from the war alone like that."

With that decided I went to the kitchen and made another sandwich and grabbed some milk. He wouldn't be able to eat much since he was practically starved to death but he needed to eat some. I instructed him to eat slowly and not to eat the whole thing right now. I didn't want him to make himself sick. Once he had eaten, I gave him some antibiotics and made him finish drinking the milk. Exhaustion was taking its toll on him again and I helped him to lie back down to sleep some more. 

I walked over to the desk and booted up my laptop. I needed to contact the other guys and find out what we had to do to stop Dekim. I left messages with the other three pilots hoping that they would take care of it, or contact me if they needed help. I wanted WuFei out of the mess and as far away from it as I could get him and the girl. They deserved that much. And in a selfish part of my mind, I hoped that WuFei's time spent here recuperating would make him decide to stay with me. Right now, I am not sure if I want him here as a friend or more, but I do know that with him in the apartment with me, I am not alone. 

Owari. 


End file.
